Strikeforce's Julia Budd was fueled by 2008 run-in with Germaine de Randamie

http://mmajunkie.comKENT, Wash. – Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers 16 main card opened with a historic fight as Julia Budd (2-1 MMA, 2-1 SF) and Germaine de Randamie (2-2 MMA, 1-1 SF) squared off in the first women’s bout promoted under the Zuffa LLC banner.

Avenging a 2008 Muay Thai loss, Budd used a strategic game plan consisting of takedowns and top control to earn a unanimous-decision victory.

It was her first fight back since suffering a 14-second knockout loss to Amanda Nunes. For Budd, it was all about sticking to plan.

“My coach, Lance Gibson, and I noticed from studying tapes that Germaine doesn’t fight very well going backward,” Budd told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) after the fight, which aired on Showtime from ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash. “She’s always pressing forward as the aggressor. We wanted to keep her going backward and then shoot and take her down. You could notice even in her last fight that her ground game was not her best.”

As in her Strikeforce debut this past October, Budd once again displayed solid wrestling skills in taking de Randamie to the mat repeatedly throughout their three-round fight. While she found de Randamie’s defense on the ground to be formidable – owing largely to her opponent’s long limbs and strength – Budd was able to land strikes from the top and maintained dominant positions.

“I know that I have a lot of work to do in all departments like my jiu-jitsu and my wrestling,” Budd said. “Going into this camp, it was something that we decided that we were going to work a lot on. I don’t find wrestling that hard, and I really love it. I like working takedowns. I’m a kickboxer, but I love working on that as well.”

Budd hopes that the fight with de Randamie shows that she is more than just a one-dimensional kickboxer and that she can perform well wherever the fight may go. Keeping her ego in check during a fight is key, Budd said, as she sometimes becomes too eager to stand and trade strikes.

“There were a couple of times where I wanted to stand and trade,” she said. “But then I thought, ‘Hold on, just stick to the game plan, and pick your shots to set up the takedown.’ It’s sometimes hard because kickboxing is what comes natural.”

Budd got herself into trouble with her coaches after giving up full mount in the first round in order to pursue an ill-advised armbar. The lapse in judgment allowed de Randamie to sweep, and she landed a big right hand that caused Budd’s eye to swell shut. Budd said that the strike didn’t affect her too badly and that she had been more worried about de Randamie’s knee strikes coming into the fight.

The win was particularly sweet for Budd since she both avenged the Muay Thai loss and also got a measure of revenge for events that went down prior to the 2008 fight in Holland.

“It was a huge motivation for me [to avenge the loss],” she said. “But not only that, I’ve never spoken about what happened in Holland when I fought her. They made me cut an extra five pounds on the day of the weigh-ins because they made it 140, and I’d never fought at 140 in my life. We were supposed to fight ninth, and then they came running into my dressing room [for the] second fight, saying that Germaine wouldn’t fight me unless I got my gloves on right now.

“I had a chip on my shoulder for a long time about that experience, but then I kind of gave it up and got into MMA. Now our paths ended up crossing again, and there was no better time to avenge what happened [in Holland].”

Looking ahead, Budd’s focus is on getting into title contention and fighting for the Strikeforce women’s middleweight championship – a belt currently held by Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. She would also like to avenge her loss to Nunes if the opportunity arises since she felt that she did not have a chance to display any of her skills in their brief January fight.

“In the next six months, I want to get two more fights under my belt,” Budd said. “But I do want to get the 145-pound title. That’s what I’m here for, and that’s what I want. I’d like a couple more fights and then face whoever has the belt.”